LEGALISING CANNABIS

Let’s get real about cannabis. The war on drugs has failed. The reality, which the old political parties continue to ignore, is that Australians choose to use cannabis. 35% of us have tried it or used it socially but, unfortunately, this choice could get you a criminal record just for having a small amount of weed in your possession.

This “tough on drugs” approach causes enormous harm. It drives people away from getting help when they need it and exposes them to a dangerous black market.

From Uruguay to Spain, New Zealand to the United States, countries all around the world are realising that prohibition causes more harm than it prevents, and are moving to develop a regulated legal market. It’s time we joined them.

The Greens see drug use as a health issue, not a criminal issue. Our campaign to legalise cannabis use would regulate and tax cannabis use to reduce harm, increase protection for vulnerable people, and break the business model of criminal gangs.

Our commitment to you is that, by the end of this 2018, we will introduce our bill to legalise cannabis into federal parliament. This is going to be huge, and you can get involved right at the beginning. Join our campaign and we’ll keep you updated on our progress, as we take our campaign to universities, neighbourhoods and Parliament House.

JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN

We’re building something big, and this is only the beginning. Get involved with our campaign to legalise it today and help us change Australia’s drug laws for the better.

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Expert endorsement for Just Legalise It

Banning cannabis hasn’t reduced its use or availability yet it has distracted police from following up more serious crimes, harmed a lot of young people and helped make some criminals rich.

Regulating cannabis will give government more control and increase government revenue, which can be used to fund drug prevention and treatment.

Dr Alex WodakPresident of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation

The health, social and economic harms of our current approach to cannabis cannot be underestimated – every year more than 80,000 people are arrested for the possession or use of cannabis. Each conviction providing untold long-term harm to careers, travel and family. Given millions of Australians have used, and many continue to use cannabis, surely the goal of this harmful criminalisation approach cannot be to arrest and ruin the lives of millions of Australians?

The level of harm inflicted on so many people, for so many years, just for using cannabis simply has to stop.

Harm Reduction Australia welcomes the sensible and evidence-based approach of the Greens to cannabis.

Gino VumbacaPresident of Harm Reduction Australia

At last some sensible drug policy in Australia. The Greens policy to legalize cannabis will reduce crime because the black market will be wiped out, and clear our courts of literally hundreds of thousands of cases. Banning cannabis has never worked.

Harm Reduction Australia welcomes the sensible and evidence-based approach of the Greens to cannabis.

Greg BarnsCriminal Barrister & Former President of the Australian Lawyers Alliance

I strongly support the Australian Greens’ proposal to legalise cannabis for adult use. We have seen real benefits in US states that have legalised including a reduction in crime, a reduction in opioid prescriptions and opioid deaths , a reduction in alcohol consumption,
an increase in employment, new ancillary business start-ups and a big increase in tax revenues ..

Tens of millions of adults in America now have simple safe access to high quality regulated cannabis. It’s compassionate for the consumer and common sense for every citizen. Because the experience has been so positive more states are coming on board every month.

John Easterling

Cannabis is already a huge industry in Australia and what we’ve got from our governments is a classic case of regulatory failure. There’s no quality control or any other sort of regulation that common sense would suggest.

Health Minister Greg Hunt wants us to believe that’s good for our health. What he’s sticking up for is a system where billions of dollars for hospitals and healthcare goes to criminals instead.

Will TregoningExecutive Director of Unharm

Working with people who use drugs is so much more successful than marginalising them. Legalisation of cannabis allows for a restrictive system of ‘controlled availability’. We need different approaches to individual drugs, and we should expect a different approach to dealing with cannabis, rather than heroin or crystal methamphetamine. The one thing that is common is that prohibition has been a dismal failure.